Reflecting on a true inspiration




By MARK WOODS, The Times-Union


Some mornings, when I'm out for a run, I'll start feeling self-pity over some nagging injury. Or begin whining about the heat or cold. Or find myself focusing on all the other things that aren't quite perfect.


And then I think of Rick Murray. And I want to slap myself.

Murray used to run marathons, ride Harleys and fly Navy planes. He played tennis, softball and a long list of musical instruments, from the trumpet to the ukulele.

That part of his life, and much more, is long gone. For more than nine years, he has been living with Lou Gehrig's disease.

With most diseases, people can find hope in others who not only fought the illness but won.

There are no Lance Armstrongs in the ALS world. Well, not in the sense that anyone with ALS goes into remission and, with time and modern medicine, becomes stronger. Not physically, anyway.

Murray's body is a fragile shell of what once powered him and one of his sons on a 350-mile tandem bike ride across Maryland. But anyone who knows him will tell you that he might be the strongest man in town (and that his wife, Sherry, might be the strongest woman).

If ever there were a disease that should obliterate hope, optimism and the will to live, it is this one. Yet, somehow, Murray has remained full of those.

He long ago moved past the initial, "Why me?" He instead leaves others asking the questions. How? Why?

Murray has written a book, providing some insight. He compiled 66 quotes and thoughts that have inspired him. He chose 66, he explains, because he didn't just want a round number. He wanted a significant one.

He is 66 years old. And Gehrig died 66 years ago.

The preface of the book is a newspaper story about his friendship with Tom Coughlin. The foreword is written by Mali- Vai Washington. The quotes come from an eclectic mix of sources - Thomas Jefferson, John McEnroe, Mark Twain, Jim Valvano, Rick Warren, Christopher Reeve, Shakespeare and, of course, a New York Yankee dubbed "The Iron Horse" because of his durability.

It's not surprising that Murray's list includes the most famous quote related to Lou Gehrig's disease - from Gehrig, delivered at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939.

"Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."

That quote continues to echo through baseball stadiums each summer as part of remembrances. And as much as I like reading Murray's perspective on it, before and after ALS, there is something wonderfully understated - and perhaps even more fitting - about what comes next in the book.

"I get up, I go to the ballpark, and I do my very best."

This page is related to a quote from Cal Ripken, a former player on Murray's beloved Baltimore Orioles. After breaking Lou Gehrig's record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games, Ripken was asked how he managed to pass the seemingly unsurpassable mark.

Ripken responded with that simple comment.

Sunday will be ALS Day at our ballpark. Suns President Peter Bragan Jr. plans to don a Yankees uniform with Gehrig's number and recite the speech.

Rick Murray plans to do like Cal Ripken. Get up, go to the ballpark and do his very best.

The book can be purchased at lulu.com. (Search for Rick's Reflections.) All profits go to ALS organizations, the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund and the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation.

mark.woods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-onlin...75558922.shtml